United Methodist Church Responds to Ebola Outbreak in West Africa
By Phileas Jusu and Kathy L. Gilbert
July 1, 2014 | KENEMA, Sierra Leone (UMNS)
The Ebola epidemic has forced the relocation of a United Methodist pastor from a new mission area in eastern Sierra Leone and significantly changed congregational life there.
Photo courtesy of United Methodist Council of Bishops. Special protective precautions are taken in burying those deaths from the Ebola virus.
The Rev. Judith Banya of the Kailahun District is now in Bo, south of the area, due to the increasing number of people now dying in the district from the hemorrhagic fever, Ebola. The death rate for the disease is 50 to 60 percent of those infected.
The epidemic, which started about four months ago in neighboring Guinea, crept into eastern Sierra Leone through Kailahun in early May.
